The Wife Takes a Flyer

"The Wife Takes a Flyer" is a strange wartime propaganda film. Strange because instead of showing the Nazis as monsters, they are more idiots in this movie...idiots easily fooled by a Dutch family and their surprise guest.

The film begins with a Nazi major (Allyn Joslyn) insisting a Dutch family billet him. Why this particular family? Because one of the residents of this house is Anita (Joan Bennett) and the horny Nazi is interested in her. As for Anita, she's married but intends to divorce her husband...a man committed to a mental asylum. But when an American pilot flying for the RAF* is shot down and wanders into the home, everyone pretends it's Anita's husband! So, the pilot pretends to be ill...but how can he pretend to be Dutch?? That, the movie never explains.

Allyn Joslyn as the major was, sadly, just terrible. He was a good actor but oddly here his delivery is weird...like the director was giving him instructions to overdo it...to over-annunciate and shout. It wasn't just unsubtle but bad. Tone, on the other hand, was completely unsubtle and weird...which actually worked considering he was supposed to be pretending to be disturbed. The rest of the cast were just fine.

So is this oddly scripted film any good? Well, it certainly is different!! It's definitely a movie that requires you to turn off your brain in order to enjoy it. After all, you are expected to believe this Yank can speak perfect, unaccented Dutch! And, the story itself is just bizarre to say the least! It also is a bit like a Three Stooges film but without the Stooges! Totally lacking subtlety and a bit stupid...but entertaining if you never, ever think as you watch.

*This story must have taken place before about 1942. Up until the US entered WWII in December, 1941, a few American pilots had volunteered to fly for the British RAF. Eventually, these pilots were transferred to the US Army Air Corps, where they then officially flew for the United States.

Franchot Tone plays an RAF flyer pretending to be a Dutch man in occupied Holland by speaking in his normal voice. Co-star Joan Bennett as a Dutch woman also speaks normally. That's because they're the co-stars in this war/spy comedy during the Second World War. Allyn Joslyn puts on a heavy German accent and speak with a growl over his normal tenor, but he's a Nazi.

Tone has been parachuted in for his mission. He is sheltered by Bennett's family, and is masquerading as her husband, whose divorce from Bennett takes place during the course of the movie; everyone in Holland, you see, hates the German occupation and helps him. Joslyn has a yen for Bennett -- quite natural -- and bullies her in what is supposed to be a funny/stupid manner.

It's the funny/stupid that makes me think this a poor comedy. The humor is the sort one applies to the butt of a joke one hates. It's appropriate for a propaganda comedy during war time, but it doesn't outlast the situation.

There are some good performances in here, particularly by Cecil Cunningham as the calm aristocrat in charge of an old ladies' home. Her performance is made better by the hysteria that infuses the rest of the picture, but it's too little and too late.

Much comedy in this wartime film from Columbia Pictures. American flyer is shot down over Holland. Fortunately they take him in and pretend he is part of the family, starring Joan Bennett an Franchot Tone. And of course, there's a German major (Allyn Joslyn)living with them to confuse things. The running gag here is that "Anita" the wife is trying to divorce her wacky husband. Kind of a three stooges scene in the restaurant where they get the best of the German soldiers. And again in the courtroom, some more slapstick antics that clearly would not have flown in those days. Chester Clute is in here as his lawyer... he was in so many supporting roles as the hotel desk clerk, the judge, the store clerk. It's pretty good. Moves right along, once you get the flow of the film. Similar to the 1942 version of To Be or Not to Be, with Jack Benny. Check it out... its fun! Kind of surprising, for a country that had just gotten into the war. The flyer ends up in a home for the elderly, and the old ladies are catty, funny, and jealous. Makes for some fun jokes. Directed by Richard Wallace. Story by Gina Kaus. Many of her works were made into films, beginning in the 1930s. I recommend this one. It's good.